There are two basic types of industrial and institutional liquid laundry cleaning systems which are currently used. One system involves two separate products which are used together. Typically these two products include a liquid surfactant blend and a liquid alkaline builder (commonly referred to as an alkali break). The other type of system is a liquid product that contains both a surfactant and an alkaline builder. This type of product is commonly referred to as a one-shot detergent due to the fact that it is designed to be used alone.
One-shot detergent blends typically contain surfactants/stabilizers (i.e. hydrotropes and/or polymers)/alkaline builders. In systems of this type the stability of the detergent blend becomes equally as important as the detergency performance of the detergent blend. Furthermore, the hydrotrope (e.g. phosphate esters) and polymer (e.g. high molecular weight acrylic polymers) stabilizers are expensive to use, provide limited shelf-life stability and add little to the cleaning performance of the system.
Accordingly, there is a need for developing stable industrial and institutional "one-shot" liquid laundry cleaning compositions which provide for the elimination, or the reduction in the amount, of these expensive stabilizing agents and which further provide for effective cleaning performance under various soil loads and wash conditions.